Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
Admiral Clowdisley Shovell
, lounging in toga and wig. One of only two survivors of a
shipwreck in 1707, he was washed up alive on a beach in the Scilly Isles, off southwest
England, only to be killed by a fisherwoman for his emerald ring. Above Shovell is a
memorial to the court portrait painter
Godfrey Kneller
, who declared, “By God, I will
not be buried in Westminster - they do bury fools there”. In the event, he has the
honour of being the only artist commemorated in the abbey (most are in St Paul's);
the tomb is to his own design, but the epitaph is by Pope, who admitted it was the
worst thing he ever wrote - which is just as well, as it's so high up you can't read it.
The cloisters
Cloisters daily 10am-6pm; Chapter House daily 10.30am-4pm • Free via Dean's Yard entrance
Doors in the south choir aisle lead to the
Great Cloister
, rebuilt after a fire in 1298 and
paved with yet more funerary slabs, including, at the bottom of the ramp, that of the
proto-feminist writer
Aphra Behn
, upon whose tomb “all women together ought to let
flowers fall”, according to Virginia Woolf, “for it was she who earned them the right to
speak their minds”.
At the eastern end lies the octagonal
Chapter House
, built in the 1250s and used by
Henry III's Great Council, England's putative parliament. The House of Commons
continued to meet here until 1395, though the monks were none too happy about it,
complaining that the shu
ing and stamping wore out the expensive tiled floor. Despite
their whingeing, the paving tiles have survived well, as have sections of the remarkable
apocalyptic wall-paintings, which were executed in celebration of the eviction of the
Commons. Be sure to check out the southern wall, where the Whore of Babylon rides
the scarlet seven-headed beast from The Book of Revelation.
Pyx Chamber and Museum
Daily: Pyx Chamber 10.30am-3.30pm; museum 10.30am-4pm • Free
he nearby
Pyx Chamber
was a medieval high-security safe-deposit box and is one of
the few surviving Norman sections of the abbey, along with the neighbouring
Museum
.
The latter contains a real mixed bag of exhibits, from replica coronation regalia used
during rehearsals to the ring given by Elizabeth I to her lover, the Earl of Essex. The
most bizarre items, though, are the lifelike wood and wax royal funereal e
gies (several
of which are wigless), used in royal burials (1307-1660) instead of an open co
n,
including that of Lady Frances Stuart, the Duchess of Richmond and Lennox and
model for Britannia on the old penny coin, complete with her pet parrot, which died
a few days after she did.
College Garden
Tues-Thurs: April-Sept 10am-6pm; Oct-March 10am-4.30pm • Free
From the Great Cloister you can make your way to the
Little Cloister
, where sick or
elderly monks used to live, and where, on the east side, you can look into
St Catherine's
Chapel Garden
, a tiny plot dotted medieval ruins. From here a passage leads to the
little-known
College Garden
, with a nine hundred-year-old stretch of green, originally
used as a herb garden by the monastery's doctor. The garden now provides a quiet
retreat and a croquet lawn for pupils of Westminster School; brass-band concerts take
place in the summer (July & Aug Wed 12.30-2pm).
The nave
It's only when you finally leave the cloisters that you get to enter the
nave
itself. Narrow,
light and, at over a hundred feet in height, by far the tallest in the country, the nave is an
impressive space. The first monument to head for is the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
,
by the west door, with its garland of red poppies commemorating the million British
soldiers who died in World War I. Close by is a large floor slab dedicated to
Winston
Churchill
, though he chose to be buried in his family plot in Bladon, Oxfordshire.
